“The coffee firm displayed Twitter messages tagged with #spreadthecheer on a big screen at the Natural History Museum [in London], where Starbucks is sponsoring the ice rink. Unfortunately, the tweets were not checked before being displayed on the screen.

In recent months, Starbucks has taken flak in the U.K. for the relatively small amount of taxes it pays in that country. In response, the company has volunteered to pay millions of pounds in extra taxes over the next two years.

Starbucks is certainly not the first organization to experience a Twitter hijacking,
which is when opponents, protesters, or snarky social media antagonists take over a conversation (that’s usually based on a hashtag) started by a brand.

McDonald’s, for example, launched a promoted hashtag, #McDStories, asking Twitter users to share their stories about the fast food giant. The conversation quickly veered off course, when a number of people used the hashtag to bash the company. For instance, one tweet said: “Unfortunately, the only taste I get out of McD's is ‘despair’ RT @McDonalds When u make something w/pride, people can taste it #McDStories.” McDonald’s stopped promoting the hashtag two hours after it launched the promotion.